Biz Buzz: BDO finds ways

The country’s biggest bank isn’t about to pass up the chance to acquire additional branches through another potential acquisition.

Apart from the group of former Trade Minister Roberto V. Ongpin (through ISM Communications), we heard that BDO decided to give bidding for PBCom a shot.

BDO was initially not too keen on it, but had sent inquiries when it received an invitation to bid for PBCom.

After all, acquiring PBCom would still mean an additional 62 branches for BDO, which it could immediately add to its own, without having to wait for the staggered liberalization of branching regulations by the central bank.

According to banking sources, Macquarie, the financial adviser for this bidding, is currently evaluating three proposals.

Still on BDO’s plate is its proposed purchase of assets of Export and Industry Bank.

During the bank’s recent briefing, bank president Nestor Tan said the takeover of Asiatrust Development Bank was no longer on the table.

Needless to say, BDO, which has been undertaking mergers and acquisitions nearly every year since the turn of the century, is always open for opportunities.

BDO chairperson Teresita Sy-Coson confirmed to Biz Buzz that her bank had indeed submitted a bid for PBCom.

“I did it for friendship,” she said, but quickly added: “I don’t think they will consider our bid.”—Doris C. Dumlao

Credibility

If the results of a recent survey are to be believed, ABS-CBN’s decision to bring back veteran anchors Noli de Castro and Korina Sanchez last year is paying off.

In a recent StratPOLLS Inc. survey, “Kabayan,” Sanchez and Ted Failon— who anchor the network’s flagship news program, “TV Patrol”—emerged as the “most credible news reader team on television in the National Capital Region.”

StratPOLLS, which belongs to the media group of businessman Antonio Cabangon-Chua, said that 45.6 percent of respondents choose ABS-CBN’s anchor lineup, while 41.2 percent of respondents said they preferred the anchors of GMA 7’s “24 Oras.”

De Castro, Failon, and Sanchez also dominated the Top 5 among those voted as “top news anchor” by respondents. Kabayan topped that list with a rating of 86.8 percent.

These results echo the ratings performance of the newscast based on data from the network’s preferred TV rating firm Kantar Media. According to the rating firm, TV Patrol edged out 24 Oras, nationally.

Still, GMA 7 commands the lead in the important “Mega Manila” TV market, based on Kantar Media’s figures.

Expect GMA 7 to retaliate, of course, as both networks are known to fight tooth and nail over the issue of ratings.—Daxim L. Lucas

Speaking of which…

Nearly a month after ABS-CBN carried a scathing article on its website against Roberto V. Ongpin for his allegedly “controversial” acquisition of Philex Mining shares with the help of the Development Bank of the Philippines, the broadcast giant has yet to publish or air the businessman’s reply.

In his seven-page letter, Ongpin took to task—in prose as elegant as an angry tycoon could muster—the writer of ABS-CBN’s two-part special report for portraying him as a “somewhat unsavory character” and for calling him a Marcos “crony.”

“I have no idea how old you are because I have never met you,” RVO wrote. “But you obviously do not recall or are ignorant about what happened during the Marcos years.”

“At that time, it was a never-ending battle between the technocrats and the cronies,” he said. “If you were to ask anyone active in business or even in politics during that period, I was one of the technocrats and certainly never regarded as a crony.”

RVO then proceeds to take the writer to school regarding the intricacies of the deal, pointing out how everyone involved came out pleased with the transaction, except for critics now trying to find fault with an otherwise airtight deal.

Finally, RVO asks the writer: “Why did you not bother to interview me? I would have saved you a lot of grief and the embarrassment of having written a treatise on one of the most successful and above-board transactions [of the bank], attempting to show the world that it was ‘questionable’ when the opposite was true.”

Copy furnished were the DBP board, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, BSP Gov. Amando Tetangco Jr., businessman Manny Pangilinan, former DBP president Rey David, and former First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, among others. Ouch.—Daxim L. Lucas</strong

DBP junkets?

The current leadership at the DBP has been described by some insiders as being “engaged in a witch hunt” in an effort to uncover evidence of malfeasance by the previous administration.

“Every day at the bank is like a Senate investigation trying to find fault with transactions of the previous administration,” said one official, referring to the frequent Upper Chamber probes aired live on cable TV.

It would seem, however, that there are some questions being raised about the present leadership, as well.

Last week, a group of “concerned employees” fired off a complaint letter to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the Office of the Ombudsman about the allegedly “unethical and inappropriate” activities of DBP chairman Jose “Pepo” Nuñez Jr.

According to the letters, Nuñez “traveled to different provinces in the guise of ‘official bank project visits’ when, in fact, the bank visits were a subterfuge, as these trips were merely excuses for him to play golf.”

More importantly, the complaint letters alleged that, for these trips, Nuñez flew on the private planes of Salvador “Buddy” Zamora who is—drum roll, please—a DBP client himself.

Nuñez, of course, is a close friend of Zamora, and has publicly declared the latter’s help in getting him appointed DBP chairman.

“The chairman’s misrepresentations concerning his provincial trips manifest disregard of basic ethical rules in receiving favors from a bank client and lack of sound judgment in failing or refusing to inhibit himself from board deliberations on the client’s accounts and renders [him] unfit to be a bank director, much less chairman of the DBP board,” the complaint letter read.

We tried to reach Nuñez through his publicist, but have yet to receive a reply (which we will most certainly publish once it comes).—Daxim L. Lucas

VP Binay goes to Wharton

Remember that story about a vehicle in Vice President Binay’s convoy being involved in a traffic accident in New York a few weeks ago?

According to our source, the Vice President and several government housing agency officials were in the United States to, among others, attend a course at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business about housing financing schemes.

Good for him, given his role as head of the government’s mass housing program.

The course, called International Housing Finance Program, runs for two weeks, and aims to help policymakers learn the latest trends about the housing market.

What caught our source’s eye, however, was the cost of the program. Wharton’s website pegs the price of participation in the seminar at a whopping $5,000 a head (or about P220,000 for each participant).

Also, there is a “securitization workshop,” which reportedly costs $1,200 a person. Multiply that by the number of officials in the Vice President’s party and … well … it’s enough to make our eyes pop out.

Hopefully, they took P-Noy’s cue from his last US trip and dined on hotdogs, instead of a Le Cirque-level restaurant.—Daxim L. Lucas